CarGurus Launches New Brand Campaign for 2019

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG), a leading online automotive marketplace, today introduced its third mass-media advertising campaign in the U.S. Based on the success of the company's inaugural creative work, the "Detective: The Story Continues" campaign will resume the narrative from the company's popular "Detective" spot. CarGurus will continue to air its 30-second commercials in both broadcast and cable television networks, as well as digital marketing channels including YouTube and Facebook.

Each of the ads in the campaign, "Parents" and "Obvious," communicate CarGurus' key value proposition of helping consumers find the best deals on cars from top rated dealers near them. Since the characters from the original "Detective" spot were received so well, this round of creative picks up where "Detective" left off and continues their story. The first spot demonstrated how fast and easy CarGurus makes searching for a good deal on a used car. The new spots go a little deeper in explaining CarGurus' value proposition, explaining how CarGurus gives every car a deal rating from "Great" to "Overpriced" and sorts the best deals first.

"Despite testing several other approaches to telling the CarGurus story, the ongoing strong performance of "The Detective" spoke for itself and we couldn't resist the opportunity to check back in on our couple," said Sarah Welch, SVP of Consumer Marketing at CarGurus. "We're excited to share more of their story as they complete their car shopping journey and to see them both turn into evangelists for CarGurus."

Since launching its brand marketing initiative in early 2017, CarGurus has seen both aided and unaided brand awareness double, with the majority of in-market car shoppers in the U.S. now aware of CarGurus when prompted. Additionally, the branding campaigns have helped CarGurus become the largest car shopping site in the U.S. by unique monthly visitors* and grow its U.S. average monthly sessions 49 percent year-over-year in Q3 2018**.

Based on the brand marketing campaign's success, CarGurus has kept the same team together for "Detective: The Story Continues." This includes partnering with the advertising agency Plum14, Director Nick Spooner and Chirp Productions for development and production, and Ocean Media for managing the campaign's media planning.

**CarGurus defines monthly sessions as the number of distinct visits to its websites that take place each month within a given time frame, as measured and defined by Google Analytics. CarGurus calculates average monthly sessions as the sum of the monthly sessions in a given period, divided by the number of months in that period. A session is defined as beginning with the first page view from a device and ending at the earliest of when a user closes their browser window, after 30 minutes of inactivity, or at midnight Eastern Time each night. A session can be made up of multiple page views and visitor actions, such as performing a search, visiting vehicle detail pages, and connecting with a dealer.

About CarGurusFounded in 2006, CarGurus, Inc. (Nasdaq:CARG) is a global, online automotive marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of new and used cars. The company uses proprietary technology, search algorithms and data analytics to bring trust and transparency to the automotive search experience and help users find great deals from top-rated dealers. CarGurus is the largest automotive shopping site in the U.S. by unique monthly visitors (source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Automotive – Information/Resources, Total Audience, Q3 2018, U.S. (Competitive set includes: CarGurus.com, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, TrueCar.com)). In addition to the United States, CarGurus operates online marketplaces in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThe information in this release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties, and our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with our business, please refer to the "Risk Factors" section of our most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements represent our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this release. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so.